Swan / White Crane

白鳥 is the Japanese Kanji and old Korean Hanja title for white swan (Cygnus Bechstein).

The title literally means white-feathered bird. This title can also be used to refer to a white crane.

This can also be the Japanese surname, Hakuchou.

Great Aspirations / Ambition

hóng hú zhī zhì

This Chinese proverb implies that having great ambitions also means that others will not understand your great expectations and ideas.

Though the actual words come from a longer saying of Confucius which goes, "The little swallows living under the eaves wouldn't understand the lofty ambitions of a swan (who flies far and wide)."

This Confucius quote has led to this idiomatic expression in China that means "think big." What you'd really be saying is "The lofty ambitions of a swan."

Note that Chinese people sometimes refer to the little swallow, as one who does not "think big" but is, instead, stuck in a rut, or just leading a mundane life. Therefore, it's a compliment to be called a swan but not a good thing to be called a swallow.

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Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your swan search...

Mahābrahman; Brahma; 跋羅吸摩; 波羅賀磨; 梵覽摩; 梵天王; 梵王; 梵. Eitel says: "The first person of the Brahminical Trimūrti, adopted by Buddhism, but placed in an inferior position, being looked upon not as Creator, but as a transitory devatā whom every Buddhistic saint surpasses on obtaining bodhi. Notwithstanding this, the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka calls Brahma 'the father of all living beings'" 一切衆生之父. Mahābrahman is the unborn or uncreated ruler over all, especially according to Buddhism over all the heavens of form, i.e. of mortality. He rules over these heavens, which are of threefold form: (a) Brahma (lord), (b) Brahma-purohitas (ministers), and (c) Brahma-pāriṣadyāh (people). His heavens are also known as the middle dhyāna heavens, i.e. between the first and second dhyānas. He is often represented on the right of the Buddha. According to Chinese accounts the Hindus speak of him (1) as born of Nārāyaṇa, from Brahma's mouth sprang the brahmans, from his arms the kṣatriyas, from his thighs the vaiśyas, and from his feet the śūdras; (2) as born from Viṣṇu; (3) as a trimūrti, evidently that of Brahma, Viṣṇu, and Śiva, but Buddhists define Mahābrahma's dharmakāya as Maheśvara (Śiva), his saṃbhogakāya as Nārāyaṇa, and his nirmāṇakāya as Brahmā. He is depicted as riding on a swan, or drawn by swans; great brahma heaven

Sarasvatī 大辯才天 (大辯才女); 大辯功德天 (大辯才功德天); 薩羅婆縛底; 薩羅酸底 A river, 'the modern Sursooty'; the goddess of it, who 'was persuaded to descend from heaven and confer her invention of language and letters on the human race by the sage Bhārata, whence one of her names is Bharatī'; sometimes assumes the form of a swan; eloquence, or literary elegance is associated with her. Cf. M. W. Known as the mother of speech, eloquence, letters, and music. Chinese texts describe this deity sometimes as male, but generally as female, and under several forms. As 'goddess of music and poetry' she is styled 妙 (or 美 ) 音天; 妙音樂天; 妙音佛母. She is represented in two forms, one with two arms and a lute, another with eight arms. Sister of Yama. 'A consort of both Brahmā and Mañjuśrī,' Getty. In Japan, when with a lute, Benten is a form of Saravastī, colour white, and riding a peacock. Tib. sbyaṅs-can-ma, or ṅag-gi-lha-mo; M. kele-yin iikin tegri; J. ben-zai-ten, or benten.

The swan-song of an arhat, who has attained to the perfect life: — All rebirths are ended,The noble life established,My work is accomplished.No further existence is mine; four phrases on the attainment of enlightenment

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The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

Title

Characters

Romaji(Romanized Japanese)

Various forms of Romanized Chinese

Swan

斯萬斯万

sī mò / si1 mo4 / si mo / simo

ssu mo / ssumo

Swan

天鵝天鹅

tiān é / tian1 e2 / tian e / tiane

t`ien o / tieno / tien o

White Swan

白鵠白鹄

byaku koku / byakukoku

bái hú / bai2 hu2 / bai hu / baihu

pai hu / paihu

SwanWhite Crane

白鳥

hakuchou / shirotorihakucho / shirotorihakucho/shirotori

Great AspirationsAmbition

鴻鵠之誌鸿鹄之志

hóng hú zhī zhìhong2 hu2 zhi1 zhi4hong hu zhi zhihonghuzhizhi

hung hu chih chihhunghuchihchih

In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line.In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese.

Successful Chinese Character and Japanese Kanji calligraphy searches within the last few hours...

When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.

Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!

When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.

The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"single-character wall scroll.We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also
attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over
6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers
in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt
such a feat.

Some people may refer to this entry as Swan Kanji, Swan Characters, Swan in Mandarin Chinese, Swan Characters, Swan in Chinese Writing, Swan in Japanese Writing, Swan in Asian Writing, Swan Ideograms, Chinese Swan symbols, Swan Hieroglyphics, Swan Glyphs, Swan in Chinese Letters, Swan Hanzi, Swan in Japanese Kanji, Swan Pictograms, Swan in the Chinese Written-Language, or Swan in the Japanese Written-Language.

34 people have searched for Swan in Chinese or Japanese in the past year.Swan was last searched for by someone else on Dec 15th, 2016